Learning to Survive
by NightSounds
Summary: Emmy is the daughter of Rick Grimes. She has grown up only depending on a close few but as tragedy strikes Emmy must begin to rely on others to survive in post apocalyptic Georgia.
1. Beginning of the End

Today seemed especially slow.

Emmy glanced up at the clock once again watching the seconds tick by as her teacher droned on in a monotone voice. She glanced out the window, just 30 more minutes and she would be free.

"Emerson," hearing the teacher call her name her eyes flashed forward. Crap. She hadn't been paying attention.

"Sorry what?" she said praying she somehow knew the answer to whatever question the teacher was asking about his monotonous lecture.

"You're needed in the office," he said.

"Huh.." she stammered, all she had been doing was day dreaming, that was hardly grounds for a trip into the principals office.

"Someone's here to pick she up," Mr. Witman said.

Emmy quickly shoved her school supplies into her bag-early freedom was all she could think.

She quickly walked through the empty hallways of King County High until she reached the principals office where a stern secretary who looked as though she'd fallen asleep with her makeup on nodded her into the conference room.

Her dads friend Shane sat, head in his hands, he looked towards her as she entered. He raised his head and stared sadly into her eyes.

Suddenly it hit her "is h-he alive" she stammered. Shane stood "he's in surgery" he said surprised that his friends young daughter was dealing with this so well-he had expected to have to deal with a child in tears.

Instead Emmy looked at the floor studying her shoes and then out of he glass conference room where she met the eyes of the secretary who gazed upon her with concern.

"How?" she asked looking back to Shane. Shane's voice shook as he recounted the story of how his friends had been shot.

"It was…It was my fault…" He finished. "You can't expect me to believe that" Emmy said. "Does carl know?"

Shane shook his head "We're gonna go pick him up now and then we'll go visit your daddy."

The two of them headed out towards the police car. They drove in silence for the entire way to Carl's elementary school.

All the while Emmy contemplated what had happened-how was she supposed to tell her little brother that his daddy had just been shot.

She was 15 and she was barely holding it together-how would her young 10 year old brother react?

Shane pulled the police car up to the school and the two of them watched Carl who was laughing with a group of friends.

Emmy sighed, he looked so care free and happy.

"You know I can go with you." Shane said touching Emmy's arm "You don't have to do this alone."

"Yeah I do…he's my brother"

Carl grinned and waved when he saw Shane in the car beside Emmy.

Emmy walked towards him and knelt to his level holding both of his hands.

"I have something to tell you,"

 **Just a short little teaser chapter of what's to come. Firstly I should explain that there is no Lori in this fanfic (although you may have already realized this) hope you enjoy** **J**


	2. Hospitals

Emmy hated hospitals.

For her the nurses bustling by, the buzzing beeping sounds of machines, and the smell of disinfectant all brought back that horrible day in January eight years ago.

She had been sitting here, same hospital; maybe even the same chair praying her mom was ok.

Car had only been two and she had only been seven.

She remembered sitting here looking at the floor, tears streaming down her face as she had reassured herself her mom would be ok.

She had to be ok.

Besides it had just been a car crash-car crashes happened all the time right?

She hadn't been ok, and that's why at this moment Emmy didn't cry.

She didn't try to reassure herself.

Instead she prepared herself for the worst.

A doctor in a pristine White coat comes out.

Shane and Emmy immediately jumped to their feet.

"You family?" He asks.

She nods "I'm his daughter"

The doctor leads them through the winding hallways until the finally reach a door with Grimes scrawled in messy letters on the whiteboard.

Emmy pauses at the door.

'You can't cry,' she silently tells herself.

"C'mon!" Carl says shoving past her into the room.

Emmy sighs, Carl reminds her of herself eight years ago.

Through the cracked door she catches a glimpse of her dad.

He's hooked up to dozens of machines, whirring and beeping and pumping.

"I…I…" She stammers turning back towards the hallway.

"its ok." The doctor says. "Take as long as you need."

Emmy lay on the rough lumpy brown couch in Shane's living room.

A figure appeared in the doorway beside her.

"Go to bed Carl." She said.

She was in no mood to deal with her brother, especially after letting him sleep in the guest room.

"I can't sleep." Carl said "I'm scared.

"I am too." Emmy said. "But you just gotta deal with it."

Carl stood in the doorway.

Emmy sighed "alright"

She got up and followed her brother into is room and curled up into bed beside him.

"It's going to be ok" she said.

She wasn't sure if she was telling herself or Carl.

Emmy's eyes fluttered open

She immediately felt her brothers body next to her and remembered the horrible events of yesterday.

It seemed more like a distant nightmare now.

She pulled on clothes for school and grabbed some cereal from Shane's cupboard. 'Geez his house was a mess' was all she could think as she settled down on the couch and switched on the news.

A reporter was in the middle of an intense speech about some guy who had seemingly come back to life and attacked a bunch of workers at a hospital in Atlanta.

Emmy snorted, sounded more like the effects of mixing drugs and alcohol to her.

She flicked the tv off. She had had just about enough of hospitals.

 **Sorry for a sort of slow chapter. I'm just trying to fill in some of the gaps between the apocalypse and rick being in the coma. Hope you're enjoying and please please please review. Positive or negative-I don't care-I just want to hear what you think** **J**


	3. Wake Up

Shane picked Emmy up early from school that day.

Things had been getting really bad.

She had even had a lock down at school earlier that week after a horde of people who had been infected had violently escaped a nearby hospital.

Since then hospitals had stopped in their efforts to help those infected and Emmy could finally go visit her dad again.

She hadn't seen him since he had slipped into the coma she watched as the seconds ticked by on the clock for lunch.

Emmy rushed out the door and into Shane's car. "Lets go"

"Whoa slow down," Shane said.

"Are we getting Carl?" Emmy asked ignoring Shane.

"Nah," he replied "todays just gonna be us."

She hadn't thought she could hate hospitals more but somehow today Emmy did.

National Guard Members lined the halls and Emmy moved closer to Shane as the walked through the halls.

He had begun to take on the role of their dad for the past week.

They entered Ricks room and closed the door to avoid the gaze of the Guards outside.

Emmy smiled slightly as she looked at her dad and tears began to fill her eyes.

She refused to let herself cry.

She hated showing emotions.

Instead she turned her attention towards the vase of flowers Shane had brought a few days earlier.

She made a mental note to bring new ones-these were beginning to wilt.

"He'll be ok" Shane said. "You know he's been through worse…there was this one time when" Shane paused smiling to himself as he remembered him and Ricks days in high school.

Before he could finish his story there was a huge crash.

Shane looked out the door to see people racing down the halls.

He grabed the arm of a nurse but she shook free and continued to race at full speed down the hall.

"Stay Here!" Shane yelled as he ran out slamming the door behind him.

Emmy opened the door and peered through the crack.

Gunfire filled her ears.

There was blood everywhere.

They weren't just killing the diseased they were shooting randomly.

Killing doctors, patients, guards.

Emmy stuck her head out farther but it was a lost cause, she couldn't find Shane anywhere within the chaos.

Emmy stood turning towards her father "you have to wake up!" She yelled.

Her dads eyes remained closed.

"WAKE UP" She screamed slamming her hand onto his chest.

She immediately regreted it-what if she had hurt him more?

Now tears are flowing uncontrollably and she knelt at the sad of Ricks bed curling her knees into her chest.

"please just wake up."

The Door bursts open and fear filled Emmy's mind.

"Emerson?!"

Relief washed over her. She stood and Shane nodded. "We have to get out of here."

Emmy stood in the corner quivering as Shane attempted to pick Rick up.

Emmy moved to the heart monitor trying to find a plug.

Suddenly the door flew open and Emmy and Shane both hit the floor.

A Guard points his gun around the room.

Shane clamped his hand over her mouth to stop her frantic breathing.

The man closed the door and they lay silently on the floor breathing in relief.

Suddenly there was an explosion.

Dry wall rained down on their heads and all the lights went out.

The machines stopped their whirring beeping noises.

It was Shane's turn to cry now.

Tears fell from his eyes as he pressed his head to his best friends chest.

Listening for something. Anything.

Shane shook his head. He looked towards the door then back to Rick then back to Emmy.

Emmy slowly realized what he's doing.

"no" she said quietly "NO"

"We have to," Shane said "he's not going to make it."

Emmy ran grabbing onto her fathers body.

Her whole body shuddered and she sobbed uncontrollably as she grasped to keep hold of him.

Shane grabbed Emmy around her stomach attempting to pull her away.

"We have to!" He yelled, "It's what he would have wanted."

In a moment of weakness he managed to pull the girl away.

She flailed her limbs as he pulled her out into the hallway.

He let her go and she flew to the side colliding with a wall.

Emmy ran at Shane and her fist made contact with his jaw.

"Godammit" yelled and grabbed her fist as she attempted to punch him again.

"We have to go! We have to get Carl! He is not going to make it without you."

Emmy realized the truth of his statement and let her arm hang loose in Shanes grip.

As they began to leave Emmy pushed a gurney up against the door of Ricks room-maybe there was still hope.

"Get behind me," Shane said gruffly as he released her wrist from his grasp.

The two of them departed the hospital with guns pointed as the dead chase after them.


	4. Waiting

Shane wiped his forehead as sweat ran down his brow. The kids were his priority right now and he quickly pushed thoughts of his best friend out of his mind.

Emmy sat in the back of the car Carl's head in her lap as he slowly dozed off.

Their car sat at a complete standstill on the highway. "Well looks like we're going to be here for a while" Shane said unbuckling his seatbelt. "I'm gonna go get a lay of the land-Emmy you watch Carl."

Emmy ignored Shane's request. She wasn't about to let him walk out on them and leave them in the car the way he had left Rick. Despite his new role as their father their time at his house had been nothing short of uncomfortable and to be perfectly honest she had never fully trusted Shane. Even at a young age she had seen the way he looked at their mother, but now he was all they had.

Carl hung onto her side as they rounded around to the back of the car. "Hey I told you to stay in the car" Shane barked.

Emmy sighed "carl's scared" she said. It wasn't entirely true, but she wasn't about to tell Shane her real reason for not wanting him to wander off.

"I can watch them" said a timid voice from the car behind theirs. A woman with short gray hair emerged with a young girl clinging to her hand as though she would drown if she were to let go.

"really it's no trouble and your boy looks about the age of my Sophia,"she said beaming.

Shane nodded "alright then," he said "I'm just going to check on the cliffside and see if I can find out what's happening."

Emmy noted how quickly he was willing to leave them with a stranger but the woman did have a kid and she could already feel that there was something about her that she liked so she relented and sat down on the trunk of the car watching as sophia wandered over to talk introduce herself to Carl.

Sophia was timid and Emmy could guess why as she eyed her father roughly grab at Carol's hand and yell muffled threats at her from the front seat of the car.

"Your dad seems nice" Sophia said breaking the silence. emmy snorted although compared to sophia's dad anyone probably seemed nice. "shane's not our dad." Carl said shortly-pain still in his voice after not being there to say goodbye.

Their conversation was cut short by an explosion in the distance. The sky lit up a brilliant orange and red before the dead were upon them. Sophia screamed as her mother grabbed her. Gunfire rang out in the same chaotic way it had in the hospital.

There was no distinguishing between the living and the dead in the darkness.

Suddenly a huge truck shot out along the side of the road. It wound around pulling up beside the cars.

Shane jumped out accompanied by a man with a fishing hat and white beard. "Emmy Carl hurry!" he said pulling them into the vehicle.

"Please!" Carol screamed "you can't leave us!"

The man with the white beard eyed sophia "Alright hurry up then." he said as they jumped after Emmy and Carl into the back of the truck.

Emmy turned to sit in the corner of the truck but there was already someone there. She whirled around realizing they weren't alone as five strangers emerged from the darkness.


End file.
